Berserk
Methos flinched at the sudden explosion of thunder that pounded in his ears.
"I hate storms!" he announced.
"So what else is new?" Kronos replied as he shoved Methos out the door, "Move, we still have to pick up Silas and Caspian before we head out to the house."
Methos grumbled as they ran out to the truck to avoid being bombarded by the rain which was falling in drops the size of silver dollars. "I still don't see why they can't meet us there."
"You know perfectly well why," Kronos said as he shoved Methos over to the passenger side and got in, "Or have you forgotten what happened last time?"
"Kronos," Methos said as he pulled the door shut, "If I never remember what happened before, it'll be too soon."
Kronos ignored Methos as he started the engine and got them out of there.
"At the rate the rain's coming down, I expect the roads on the lower end of town will be washed out long before morning," he told Methos.
"Well lucky us the house is on higher land," Methos commented.
"Some luck, being stuck with the three of you morons for a week, a choice between listening to Caspian and Silas trying to kill each other, or you complaining about everything," Kronos said.
"Well if you hate us so much," Methos said, "Why did you agree to come along?"
"What?" Kronos asked, "You really think I'd trust leaving the three of you alone in an enclosed space?" he cackled, "It'd be safer juggling nitroglycerin."
"That's what I like about you, Kronos," Methos dryly said as he put his feet up on the dashboard, "You're so trusting."
"For as well as I know you, it's a wonder I trust you as much as I do," Kronos told him.
"For some reason, that's not very comforting," Methos said.
"Shut up."
Methos watched the rain that beat down on the windshield so hard it was about impossible to see anything. The road ahead looked like it was covered by fog; it was a wonder they didn't run off the road or crash into anything. About an hour passed before they finally reached the police station where their brothers worked. They looked around but didn't see anybody, and then sudden a Quickening hit them, and they looked and saw a dark figure right in front of the car. It wore a long coat and its face was hidden from their view, all they could see was its hands. The figure placed its hands on the hood as the truck stopped and it went around to the passenger side door and stepped in.
Methos pulled up the dark hat it wore, revealing Caspian's face. "Well don't you look like a drowned rat?"
"Shut up, Methos," he replied.
"What happened to Silas?"
"He went on ahead and said he'd meet us at the house," Caspian answered.
"And you didn't go with him?" Methos asked.
"I'm not an idiot, I remember what happened last time we headed up there together," Caspian remarked.
Methos remembered too…he wasn't there at the time and didn't know all the exact details but knew that the last time Silas and Caspian were left alone together, whatever did happen resulted in all of them almost being blown up.
Methos pulled open one side of Caspian's coat and saw he was wearing civilian clothes instead of his police uniform, "What happened to you?"
"Don't ask."
Methos looked to Kronos and said, "Well I can't say I'm too upset about Silas not waiting on us, I'm getting sick of having to sit on somebody's lap when we go somewhere."
"Shut up, Methos," Kronos told him.
Methos made an irritated face and remarked, "I'm getting it from all sides tonight."
The rain poured down so fast and so hard that the roads were starting to turn into rushing rivers that were already about as tall as the tires on the truck. Methos and Caspian managed to stomach Kronos' driving as they headed off the main roads and up the hill leading to the house they had which was stored away in the middle of nowhere, away from civilization and any and all prying eyes.
They hit a bump in the road and all three of them jumped and about hit the roof. Methos leaned in to Caspian and said to him, "I think I'm getting seasick and we're nowhere near the docks."
They held on for the remainder of the ride until they came to a sudden stop; then they had to get out into the near foot of standing water and make their way up to the house. Originally the land had been a heavily wooded area and there had been a cabin here where the four brothers retreated too when they tired of the modern life. But several years ago a big storm had taken the whole thing down and many of the trees with it; so in the cabin's place they'd had built a three story house that was put together like a fortress: it was fireproof and as weather proof as was possible, and nobody was going to come in or go out who had no business being there.
"Well obviously Silas hasn't gotten here yet," Kronos said, "We'll go on ahead."
Methos picked up the bags of groceries they'd gotten before heading to the police station; the last time they had come to this house was several months ago and he wouldn't trust any food that might be left in it from the last time. They got out of the truck and ran up to the house, managing to somehow avoid tripping and falling in the gushing river that was building.
The front porch was two feet off the ground and now Methos was thankful it was. His mind reeled back to several decades before when floods built so high, he and many others had to stand up on the roof of the house just to see above the water, and wait for it to drain down again; and whenever any help managed to come their way, it was usually in a rowboat. One more reason why he hated the water, and the sea, and boats, and anything else connected to it. In fact, Methos had made it a priority of his to avoid any and all ships too large to fit in the bathtub.
The front door swung open almost automatically, Caspian squeezed in first but then Methos and Kronos, side by side, tried to step in at the same time and they got stuck in the doorway. They finally popped out and into the living room, and it was then that Methos said, "Something's wrong here."
"You're telling me," Kronos said with a slight laugh, "Two people can't fit through a door…"
"Kronos, the last time we were here, we did lock up when we left, didn't we?" Methos asked as he set the groceries on the coffee table.
"Certainly."
"Where're the keys?" Methos asked.
"I gave them to you."
"Right, and I didn't unlock the door, so how'd it open?" Methos asked.
Kronos looked back at the door as he realized what Methos was saying. "Maybe Silas did get here first."
Methos didn't think so but he offered to look around the place; most of which was nearly wall to wall drop cloths on the furniture which were coated in an inch of dust.
Kronos was alone in the living room when he heard an unusual noise coming from the kitchen.
"What the hell's going on in there?" he asked.
"No water," Caspian replied, "The pipes are bone dry, only thing coming out of the faucet's dust."
"Water?" Kronos repeated, not quite sure he could believe his ears, "If it's water you want, go outside, we've got enough water standing out there to fill up the Pacific Ocean."
Caspian headed to the backdoor and discovered something, "Was this broken when we left?"
"Was what broken?"
Kronos saw what Caspian was looking at. One of the window panes in the main door was busted, a pane, Kronos realized, right over the bolt in the doorknob.
"So it would seem we have a guest," he dryly remarked.
"Well," Methos said, coming into the kitchen, "There's nobody down here."
"No but evidently there is or was somebody inside," Kronos said as he pointed to the broken window.
"At least the storm door's intact, otherwise we'd be getting the flood in here," Methos told him.
But Kronos wasn't hearing him, his mind was on something else. "They break this window to open this door, they come in…but the front door's unlocked also…meaning they might've gone out…but if they did, did they come back?"
"Don't tell me," Methos said, "We're going to search this house from attic to basement just like in those lousy detective movies."
Kronos looked Methos dead in the eyes as if to say 'and your point is?'
"I'll check the basement," Methos gave in.
"No you don't," Kronos grabbed Methos by the back of his shirt, "You look upstairs. You," he turned to Caspian, "Check the grounds."
"Why me?" he asked.
"Why argue about it? If they're still around, I want to find them before whoever it is has a chance to get away," Kronos told him.
"Suppose whoever it is comes back?" Caspian asked.
"Well I don't think we'll have much to worry about," Kronos replied, "If they try to stab you in the head they'll ruin their knife."
Caspian glared at him through the corner of his eyes but didn't say anything, and he left out the back door. His boot crunched pieces of broken glass on the back porch; he realized that when he found the window pane broken, the broken pieces should've been on the floor in the kitchen, but they weren't. Now that didn't make any sense, he thought, why would somebody break the window from the inside to get out? The bolt in the door only worked from one way and that was inside as well. He thought about it and in fact got so engrossed in the whole thing that he forgot about the two foot difference between the porch and the ground, and when he took one step off the porch he fell into a standing mud puddle.
With the backs of his hands, he wiped the mud out from his eyes and let out a purely animalistic growl as he got back up; except before he could completely regain his balance, he felt another Quickening. The rain beat down so hard he couldn't see who was there, he held one hand over his eyes and was able to make out a figure in the distance but that was all.
"Who is it?" he demanded to know.
"Who else would it be at 10 o' clock at night in the middle of a flood?" Silas asked as he walked up the side yard, his overstuffed figure becoming more visible now, dressed for the evening in an oversized trench coat and a black hat he about had to screw on his head, "What happened to you?"
"Never mind," Caspian replied, "Are you just getting here?"
"What? I was supposed to watch the house for you like a guard dog?" Silas asked.
"I wish you would've," Caspian said, "Then I wouldn't have to be out here."
"What's going on?" Silas asked as he peeled off his waterproof gloves.
"Come on."
They went in the back door and Caspian told Kronos that Silas hadn't been there already.
"Alright then," Kronos said, somewhat calmly, the proverbial calm before the storm, "Then who has been here?"
At that point, Methos reentered the kitchen and said, "Well, whoever was here, they were upstairs."
Kronos was trying not to laugh and it was a battle he was losing with himself, "Don't tell me they're still in the bed."
"No, but they were," Methos said, "A whole body imprint on the drop cloth covering your bed, and the window's open."
"If there turns out to be some spindly old lady behind all this," Kronos said, "I'll…"
"You'll what, impale her on a church steeple?" Methos asked.
"Shut up, Methos!" Kronos and Caspian told him.
"I'm getting sick of that line," he told them.
Kronos stormed past him and headed for the stairs. Methos followed after him as the two headed back up to the bedroom. The west side of Kronos' bedroom was drenched with the rain coming in the window. His focus went to the bed, which had a definite body outline in the middle of the filthy drop cloth, also he noted, there were wet spots on the sheet. He went over to the window, looked out into the night, and finding nothing, closed it, though too late to keep that side of the room from being flooded.
"So what're we thinking?" Methos asked later that night as they got ready for bed, "Whoever was here, what…they broke in through the backdoor to let themselves out the front door or to climb out of the upstairs window? The whole thing doesn't make any sense."
"Who knows?" Caspian replied from his side of the bed.
Kronos had made it clear, though in not so many words, that he wasn't planning to spend the night in his bedroom since doing so now required scuba diving gear. So Methos, being the reluctant but dutiful Samaritan of a brother, gave Kronos his room for the night and agreed to bunk with Caspian.
"And for that matter, who cares?" Caspian added, "Whoever was here is obviously long gone, and that's the end of it." He turned on his side and told Methos, "Go to bed."
"It still doesn't make sense," Methos told Caspian as he crawled into the other side of the bed, "Whoever was here…how did they get here? We're miles away from anybody else and if anybody else drove up here…well that's impossible because we would've seen the tracks in the mud."
"Seen them? In this weather?" Caspian grabbed a telephone book off the nightstand and hit Methos over the head with it, "Go to bed!"
The things I do for you, Kronos, Methos thought to himself as he settled down to sleep. He knew that Kronos was in no mood for any bedside company tonight, so he'd offered to spend the night with Caspian in his room, a decision he was already regretting, and the night was still young.
Methos turned around on his sides several times trying to get comfortable but nothing seemed to work. He didn't remember falling asleep but he must've because the next thing he knew, he heard a strange noise and it woke him up.
The room was quiet, Methos sat up in the bed and saw that Caspian was lying beside him, dead to the world. They had both fallen asleep before turning off the lights so Methos could see everything around the room; he saw the clock on the wall and noticed that it was 2:30 in the morning. But what was it that had woken him up?
He heard it again…some kind of pounding noise on the floor above. Methos looked up at the ceiling as if he expected it to break away, and he reached his hand over and shook Caspian to wake him up. Caspian moved slightly which resulted instead in Methos basically knocking on his head.
"What is it?" Caspian asked as he sat up in bed, "What? What?"
"Do you hear that?" Methos asked.
"Hear what?"
"Shut up and listen!" Methos told him.
Both were quiet, and they heard the noise again. It sounded like somebody was walking around up there and pounding on the walls, or something.
"What is that?" Methos asked.
"Probably Kronos," Caspian replied.
"I don't think so," Methos threw back the covers and started to get dressed.
"What're you doing?" Caspian asked.
"I want to find out what's going on up there," Methos told Caspian as he opened the drawer on the nightstand and took out a gun.
"You're being ridiculous," Caspian told him, even though he too had gotten out of bed and was putting his clothes on.
"You think so?" Methos asked, "Caspian, who in the hell could've possibly come out here? In the pouring down rain, miles away from the main road and any form of civilization? And why did they? And why did they break open one door, unlock the other and leave through the window?"
"You really think whoever it is, you'll need that?" Caspian gestured to the gun Methos had picked up.
Methos opened the chamber and checked the bullets, "I might."
Methos headed for the door and Caspian followed right after him, "I still say you're acting crazy."
"So what else is new?" Methos asked as they headed over to the end of the hall where the stairs leading up to the third floor were. The noises, whatever they were, were growing louder now. Methos noticed as they drew closer to the third floor also, that he felt something…there was an Immortal presence up there but it didn't feel like any of his brothers'.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" they both heard.
Methos felt his blood turn to ice water in a terrifying revelation. Both he and Caspian turned around and looked back to the other end of the hall and they saw Kronos and Silas standing outside of their rooms, looking over at them.
Methos turned back to face his other brother and said, "You were saying, Caspian?"
Kronos and Silas just now seemed to become aware of the noise occurring on the floor above, and they too were now starting to notice the additional presence.
"What the hell is going on here?" Methos said, more to himself than the others in the moment before they headed up the stairs to find out.